Steve Carell And James Gandolfini Team Up For HBO Movie Bone Wars

Steve Carell may seem like an unlikely choice for an HBO film, but he’s signed on for a brand new project opposite The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini. The two men recently appeared together in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and they apparently had such a good time, they are ready to work together on an equally oddball project. The two men have signed on for HBO’s Bone Wars, which will fittingly follow two paleontologists.

Set in the period just after the Civil War, Bone Wars will follow two men who are racing to be the first to find fossils of various dinosaur species. The TV movie will follow the real-life trajectories of the two men, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, which spans multiple decades and, according to Deadline, led to the discovery of over 160 dinosaurs. Unfortunately, strife as intense as a feud between two men can also lead to plenty of personal problems. Still, Bone Wars is described as a comedy.

Carell is set to take on the role of Cope and Gandolfini will play Marsh in the project. Both men will also executive produce the TV movie, along with Thom Hinkle and Alexandra Ryan. Currently, the project is still looking for a writer, so it could be a while before we hear more details about Bone Wars.

Bone Wars is the third full-length TV project HBO has greenlighted in just a couple of days. Yesterday, the subscription cable network announced it would put together a Mikhail Gorbachev project with the help of Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Gorbachev himself. Today, HBO also announced it would create a documentary about Nora Ephron’s life. We'll keep you updated as Bone Wars moves forward at the network.